Patents on Environmental Technologies and Environmental Sustainability in Spain

Modupe Oluyemisi Oyebanji, Rui Alexandre Castanho, Sema Yilmaz Genc and Dervis Kirikkaleli
Additional contact information
Modupe Oluyemisi Oyebanji: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, European University of Lefke, Lefke 99010, Turkey
Rui Alexandre Castanho: Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland
Sema Yilmaz Genc: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration Sciences, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul 34210, Turkey

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Through an in-depth evaluation of the potential effectiveness of intellectual property protection on environmental technologies, the aim of the present research is to investigate the effect of patents on environmental innovation, energy use, GDP, and trade openness on environmental deregulation in Spain using nonlinear ARDL techniques. Specifically, the study findings indicate that patents on environmental technologies enhance environ-mental sustainability in Spain, as evidenced by the novel results from the nonlinear ARDL. Secondly, our study reveals that Spain’s growing economy degrades the quality of the environment. Based on the findings of the study, positive changes in trade openness could have positive effects on Spain’s environmental sustainability, suggesting that better productivity, more international trade, and increased economic openness could facilitate an improvement in Spain’s environmental impact. Lastly, this study provides evidence demonstrating that Spain’s environmental quality could suffer due to excessive energy consumption. In the light of this study’s policy recommendations, the policymakers and the Spanish government should encourage collaboration between private and public partnerships on environmental technologies to address global climate change or regional pollution. It is necessary for research and development to contribute to the development of technological progress in the Spanish energy sector; however, promoting patenting should be prioritized. By expanding patent protection, eco-friendly technologies that can combat carbon emissions can be developed swiftly in Spain, which will enable life to be more sustainable by lowering the use of energy and resources. A strong patent protection sys-tem will foster environmentally-friendly technologies and economic development while reducing CO 2 emissions in Spain.

Keywords: patents; environmental innovations; sustainability; carbon emissions; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6670/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6670/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6670-:d:827584

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().